AYASHA'S POV
Night fell over the palace grounds like a heavy blanket, and still Pavati had not returned from the Bellengrave house. I knew she was safe there, protected in ways I could never be, but her absence made the silence in my chambers feel suffocating. I could not bear to sit alone with my thoughts any longer.
I slipped out through the quarters, taking the path I had memorized during my first days here. The guards paid little attention to a lone figure in modest clothing moving through the shadows. They were looking for banditry attempts, not midnight wanderings.
The shallow grave lay in a forgotten corner of the palace grounds, where the gardens gave way to wild grass and thorny shrubs. Someone had marked it with a simple stone, nothing more. No name, no prayer, no acknowledgment of the life that had been lost here.
I knelt beside the mound of earth and placed my hand on the cold ground.
